He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit 'n' sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation, novelists like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski. Waits is often compared to Charles Bukowski, being similar both in content and lifestyle
Waits was unable to make a living from his music in the 70s because his classical bar music, based in pre-rock, and Americana, blues, and Vaudeville styles were not popular. Waits's voice back then was soft, warm and clear.
Waits subsequently developed a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions of more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart.
Although Waits’s albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Lyrically, Waits's songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of seedy characters and places; he sings about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts, although he also includes more conventional and touching ballads in his repertoire.
While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him; he was an unsuitable match with Zappa's avantgarde style.
Countless cigarettes, gallons of alcohol and many all night parties eventually left their trace in his face and voice.
His more recent gravelly voice can be first heard on Small Change. This distinctive voice turned out to be his trademark. It is described by the Music Hound Rock Album Guide as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car". Small Change with its sentimental ballads, its bar-jazz attitude and Film Noir-oriented stories turned out to be his biggest commercial success in the 1970s.
Waits subsequently developed a more unique style. His songs have grown more abrasive since then, and the arrangements have turned more surreal and experimental with every new record. His life brings him to new visions, as indicated by the direction taken in his "Alice" release.
While composing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart Waits met Kathleen Brennan, his bride-to-be. They married in 1980 and she helped him quit drinking and smoking. Since their marriage they have been working together on his albums as co-producers and co-writers. It is hard to say which part belongs to her and which to him, but it's easy to see that they make a perfect team. Additionally, his eldest son Casey can be heard on turntables and percussion on Waits's album "Real Gone".
One of Waits's greatest successes was the album "Swordfishtrombones", released in 1983. It struck with his critics and fans alike. He achieved a new level of song writing and left former conventions (and his earlier career) behind. All songs, whether ballads, jive or jazz are played in a completely different way. It seems that Waits had taken the musical archetypes of these styles and made them his own. All tracks are in the quintessential Waits style. They have a striking rawness and listenability and they set the stage for his success and his future career.
The Bad As Me Songfacts reports that 36 years after the release of Waits' first album, Closing Time in 1973, Bad As Me became Waits's first ever top 10 album in the US when it debuted at #6 with 63,000 sales.
In the late 1980s Waits discovered an outlet for his creativity in composing musicals. His first Musical was named "The Black Rider", and is based on "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber. It was co-produced by Robert Wilson and the lyrics come from William S. Burroughs. The story is slightly reminiscent of Kurt Weil's and Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" and the 1930s. The debut performance of the play was in 1990 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg and has been played by various theatre groups since then.
Waits was also responsible for two other musicals, which later became albums released simultaneously in 2002. One was the musical "Blood Money," which covers the "Woyczek" theme of Georg Büchner. This one is one of the darkest works from Waits. The other musical is based on Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". "Alice" is very romantic, dreamy and soft, and contains one of Waits most romantic songs. Even though they were released at the same time, the bootlegs of the "Alice" musical were long before traded between fans and were just rearranged and re-mastered for the official release.
Besides many film contributions as composer – the Internet Movie Database imdb.com lists 47 appearances of Waits as composer and 38 soundtracks containing songs by Waits - he also is an actor with a total of 25 appearances, ranging from some mini-roles as a trumpeter in "Heart of Saturday Night" and the R. M. Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" to the major role of Zack in Jim Jarmusch's "Down by Law". He recently appeared in Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow", playing You Can Never Hold Back Spring at Benigni's wedding dream. Even more recently, Waits played Mr.Nick (the Devil) in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus".
In addition to a number of concert videos, he also appeared in the critically-acclaimed concert feature film "Big Time" (1990).
Waits has always refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials. He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers for using his material without permission. Waits also successfully sued an advertiser for using a work that was stylistically similar to his work, after he had declined to sell them the rights to his song. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car. I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."
Fumblin' With the Blues
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And it's hard to win when you always lose
Because the nightspots spend your spirit
Beat your head against the wall
Two dead ends and you've still got to choose
You know the bartenders
They all know my name
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
You know the ladies I've been seeing off and on
Well they spend your love and then they're gone
You can't be lovin' someone who is savage and cruel
Take your love and then they leave on out of town
No they do
Well now fallin' in love is such a breeze
But its standin' up that's so hard for me
I want to squeeze you but I'm scared to death I'd break your back
You know your perfume
Well it won't let me be
You know the bartenders all know my name
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
Come on baby
Let your love light shine
Gotta bury me inside of your fire
Because your eyes are 'nough to blind me
You're like a-looking at the sun
You gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
Gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
"Fumblin' With the Blues" is a song by Tom Waits that tells the tale of the singer's self-destructive behavior and inability to maintain healthy relationships. He sings about his struggles with addiction and his flawed relationships with women. The song's lyrics portray a character who is lost in a cycle of self-sabotage, caught between the lure of the night and the desire to do better.
The opening lines of the song set the tone for the rest of it. The singer is feeling down and out, with the blues. This is due to his struggles with addiction and the fact that he always seems to lose. He is caught in a cycle of partying and living for the moment, but it ultimately leaves him feeling empty and frustrated.
The next verse describes the singer's relationship with bartenders. They all know his name and help him when he's pulling up lame. He's a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster, someone who's always moving and hustling, never staying still or settling down. He knows that he should be living clean, but he can't resist the temptation of a good time.
The chorus is a plea for someone to love him and make him whole. He admits that falling in love is easy, but he struggles with standing up and being a good partner. His fear of hurting someone he loves keeps him from fully committing to a relationship.
Overall, "Fumblin' With the Blues" is a melancholic song about a man who can't seem to break free from his self-destructive tendencies. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of a character who is stuck in a cycle of addiction, unable to find true happiness.
Line by Line Meaning
Friday left me fumblin' with the blues
I'm feeling lost and down because of the events of last Friday
And it's hard to win when you always lose
It's difficult to come out on top when you're constantly facing defeat
Because the nightspots spend your spirit
The bars and clubs drain your energy and take a toll on your soul
Beat your head against the wall
You're struggling to find a way out of your problems, hitting a wall at every turn
Two dead ends and you've still got to choose
Even though you're at a dead end, you still need to make a decision
You know the bartenders
The bartenders are familiar with me and my problems
They all know my name
They recognize me and know me well
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
They help me out when I'm in trouble or struggling
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
I'm a hustler and a liar, disappointed in myself
When I should be living clean instead
I should be honest and living a moral life
You know the ladies I've been seeing off and on
The women I've been dating occasionally
Well they spend your love and then they're gone
They take my love and leave without a second thought
You can't be lovin' someone who is savage and cruel
It's impossible to love someone who is mean and heartless
Take your love and then they leave on out of town
They take my love and go away to another place
No they do
That's what they do
Well now fallin' in love is such a breeze
It's easy to fall in love
But its standin' up that's so hard for me
It's difficult for me to commit and stay in love
I want to squeeze you but I'm scared to death I'd break your back
I want to hold you close, but I'm afraid I'll hurt you
You know your perfume
I'm familiar with the scent you wear
Well it won't let me be
It lingers in my memory and haunts me
Come on baby
Hey, sweetheart
Let your love light shine
Show your love and affection openly
Gotta bury me inside of your fire
I want to be completely consumed by your passion and love
Because your eyes are 'nough to blind me
Just looking into your eyes is overwhelming
You're like a-looking at the sun
It's like staring directly into the sun
You gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Tell me that I'm the only one you love
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
Please, whisper it to me again
Gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
I need to hear it one more time
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC
Written by: TOM WAITS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jake Boi
Friday left me fumbling with the blues
And it's hard to win when you always lose
Because the nightspots spend your spirit
Beat your head against the wall
Two dead ends and you've still got to choose
You know the bartenders they all know my name
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
You know the ladies I've been seeing off and on
Well they spend your love and then they're gone
You can't be lovin' someone who is savage and cruel
Take your love and then they leave on out of town, no they do
Well now falling in love is such a breeze
But its standing up that's so hard for me
I wanna squeeze you but I'm scared to death I'd break your back
You know your perfume well it won't let me be
And you know the bartenders all know my name
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
Well, come on baby let your love light shine
Gotta bury me inside of your fire
Because your eyes are enough to blind me
You're like a-looking at the sun
You gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
Gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
Simon Loveland
Love Jim Gordon's drumming. You just can't tell when he changes from brushes in the verse to sticks in the chorus, because it's so smooth and seamless - Genuine professional, old school drummer!!!
Om 1000
This could be my favorite song by Tom waits ❤️😍what can I say the guy is a genius 👍🤦🏻♀️🌹
MUDDY MO
I'm a pool player too. Yeah
Ricardo Ortiz
Love this blues amo este blues
Billy Catain
Absolutely love his sound on "The Heart of Saturday Night". Thanks for the upload.
sandyman1960
its class man
Jake Boi
Friday left me fumbling with the blues
And it's hard to win when you always lose
Because the nightspots spend your spirit
Beat your head against the wall
Two dead ends and you've still got to choose
You know the bartenders they all know my name
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
You know the ladies I've been seeing off and on
Well they spend your love and then they're gone
You can't be lovin' someone who is savage and cruel
Take your love and then they leave on out of town, no they do
Well now falling in love is such a breeze
But its standing up that's so hard for me
I wanna squeeze you but I'm scared to death I'd break your back
You know your perfume well it won't let me be
And you know the bartenders all know my name
And they catch me when I'm pulling up lame
And I'm a pool-shooting-shimmy-shyster shaking my head
When I should be living clean instead
Well, come on baby let your love light shine
Gotta bury me inside of your fire
Because your eyes are enough to blind me
You're like a-looking at the sun
You gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
Gotta whisper tell me I'm the one
Come on and whisper tell me I'm the one
greatvanzini
Pure genius as usual.
Jason Carpp
Awesome song! Awesome music.
Raul Souza
this dude simply has the suppreme drunk undead in the alleyway at midnight vibes